This is me through a number of years and I wonder just how much my ancestors have contributed to the way I look and the way I think about things and the way I do things!

Hence the title of this blog: So That’s Where I Get It From!

I know that I get a certain subconscious action of rubbing my knee from my Mum and we both know we get this from her Mum, my Grandmother. But, where did my Grandmother get it from? Was it her Dartnell Father’s family or her Dickens Mother’s family? I wonder if I will ever find out!

So, who do I get my creativeness from? Who do I get my wonderful ideas (well I think they are) from? The questions are endless and no doubt there are little clues in the discoveries I make along the way.

I have been seriously researching my ancestors for about 20 years or so. I have made some wonderful discoveries and now also have even more questions that they have set me! And I have lost count at the number of brick walls I am waiting to knock through with different lines on both sides of my family.

Because my thoughts jump from one thing to another (now, who do I get that from?) I am not sure this blog and the other pages I have made will follow on in some proper order, so please be patient with me while I just prattle on about this, that and the other regarding the discoveries, mysteries and surprises I have found along the way while delving into this fascinating hobby of family history research.

If anything I write here is useful to you or you can help by suggesting possible other avenues for me to follow, I would love to hear from you and of course, if any of the family names I am researching are yours too, please let me know. Check out the Contact Page for details.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this, I hope there is something that could be of interest to you.

How it all began!!!

Are You Sitting Comfortably? Then I Will Begin!

I suppose the beginning for me was nearly twenty years ago when I decided to really concentrate on researching my family history. I had always had a keen interest in it, but because of work and gallivanting about in the evenings with my friends, I just never had the time to do any proper research.

But everything changed in November 1989. I had an accident at work which resulted in an injury that disabled me and in the long months that followed when I couldn’t work, and couldn’t really do much else I found that I really needed something to occupy my mind but that wasn’t going to cause me to move about too much, which was difficult because of my injury.

It was fairly safe for me to sit and read and at some stage my thoughts turned to the time my dear late Dad had been going to various churches and record offices to research his side of the family and how much he loved looking at the old parish registers and dusty old documents.

He had made notes on what he found on various pages attached to a clipboard, which I now had in my possession. To pass some time, I started going through his notes to see what sense I could make of his findings. He was so pleased to find the family originating in Buckinghamshire and to have taken the family back to about the 1850s. We were basically Londoners living in Hertfordshire but at the time of my accident at work, my partner and I were actually living in Kent.

So, as it was near enough impossible for me to visit Buckinghamshire to pick up where my dear Dad had left off with his notes, I decided that the best thing for me to do was to join the Buckinghamshire Family History Society. (And I have to say this was the very best thing I could have done as it turned out – they were and still are a fantastic society)!

They have many parish register transcripts which members can borrow, so I had some of these sent to me. This enabled me to check my Dad’s details with what was in the transcripts and in turn I was then able to follow the family a bit further back in time. I was thrilled, it was so exciting to actually see their names and the places they lived at in Buckinghamshire and so on.

Well, I was bitten by the bug and sent off for more parish register transcripts, some microfiche sets and also wrote to some of the Society members who were researching the same family names as myself.

One day, I received two letters, both really interesting, both with lots of attached notes, trees, and stacks of details. The first one was from someone who it turned out, was in fact a cousin!! I had found my first “new” cousin. I was so excited. This was thrilling and not something I had expected at all.

The second letter was equally interesting, from a gentleman who sent me so much information it was difficult to take in all at once! He felt we weren’t connected but was researching the surname we shared and had a tremendous amount of information about our name. Over the following few years I felt this gentleman and I were connected. It took a few more years to find that indeed we were cousins of some sort (I’m really not very good at how many times removed a cousin is from someone)!

I consider myself very lucky to have found new members of the family almost at the beginning of my “proper” research and couldn’t wait to find out what I would discover next!

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Like this:

I am a Dartnell and have recently started to develop the family tree. I have read your blog over the years and plundered it as a free source of information. Prudence Jane was my great grandmother and I’d love to send you a pdf of the history so far.

Please let me know if you are interested although I’m not sure how we get in touch!

Hallo Cousin Len, I am so very pleased to hear from you and I don’t mind in the least that you have been plundering any Dartnell information I have shown on this blog. I intended that those interested/connected to my family could find out info here and also comment or add info if they wanted.

I do apologise for the delay in moderating this comment from you and for answering it. Lately I am having problems with my internet connection and sometimes it is so bad I just can’t get into my blog or emails!! I have since received your email and will be answering that very soon.

I just answered a later comment of yours, and again apologise for my very late response to this and your other comment.

I did hear from Naomi regarding the Stockwell War Memorial and you sister Sheila’s online petition. I was ready to post a piece about that here on the blog with some photos to help Sheila, but unfortunately due to some family commitments I just have not been able to get back to the blog for ages. I am hoping to sort out some routine that enables me to do my family history research, blog and so on, so will check how Sheila’s petition is going and will write something about it and the Memorial here on the blog as soon as I can. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t able to do it when I originally said I would.

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YOUR ANCESTORS

If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row
Would you be proud of them
Or don't you really know?
Some strange discoveries are made
In climbing family trees
And some of them, you know
Do not particularly please!

If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row
There might be some of them, perhaps
You wouldn't care to know
But here's another question, which
Requires a different view ...
If you could meet your ancestors
Would they be proud of you?(Author unknown)